Buddy has a coyote problem, in the last year he has paid $2200 in vet bills for his dogs who were chewed up by coyotes. They are getting bold. Sees them all the time. I said I'd help, so last night I took my climbing stand, Marlin 336, gear bag, calls, ect and went over. Took a while but I found a good tree overlooking a power line cut. I waded through 25 yds of saw briars to it, set up the two parts of the stand, tied off my gun and gear, and began to climb. I made it about 10' before I ran into limbs. Dug and out my folding saw and started cutting them off as I climbed. At about 20' I cut the bloody hell out of my left index finger with it. Nasty jagged ripped cut. Blood went everywhere. My gear bag is on the ground, I have about ten more feet to climb, I'm not set up to sit, so I just kept on climbing. I'm coated with blood, stand is coated with blood, the leaves below me are coated, the tree is dripping. Finally got where I wanted, set up, sat down, started pulling up my rifle and gear bag. All the limbs I had cut fell on the bag and it got hung up. Took a while to get it up, I'm still bleeding. Finally got it up, tied it and rifle off, opened bag, no bandaids. Took a pocket knife, cut a piece off my undershirt, tied it off with a strip of burlap from my hat. Got settled, picked up rifle, inserted cartridges, opened lever, gun jammed. Would not close. Loading gate had slipped into action. I didn't have any tools, plus 30' up a tree is not a good place to fix a gun. Plus I'm still bleeding all over everything. Tied everything back off, lowered gun and gear bag, worked my way back down, finally got back to truck. Got home, cleaned up hand, fixed rifle (small screw that holds loading gate had loosened) and got a beer. Bandages are now in my pocket, leatherman too, and Im going back tonight. I better kill something.
rk
rk
